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Serum carnitine and disabling fatigue in multiple sclerosis
Author(s) -
FUKAZAWA TOSHIYUKI,
SASAKI HIDENAO,
KIKUCHI SEIJI,
HAMADA TAKESHI,
TASHIRO KUNIO
Publication year - 1996
Publication title -
psychiatry and clinical neurosciences
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.609
H-Index - 74
eISSN - 1440-1819
pISSN - 1323-1316
DOI - 10.1111/j.1440-1819.1996.tb00573.x
Subject(s) - carnitine , multiple sclerosis , chronic fatigue syndrome , medicine , endocrinology , mitochondrion , chemistry , biochemistry , immunology
The serum concentrations of total, free and acylcarnitine were compared in 25 patients with multiple sclerosis (MS) and among age‐ and sex‐matched normal controls by the new enzymatic cycling method in order to clarify whether the fatigue in MS might be due to possible carnitine‐related fatty acid metabolic abnormalities in the mitochondria of skeletal muscles. Patients with MS were divided into those with and those without excessive fatigue. Levels of total and free carnitine were not significantly different between MS patients and normal controls. Levels of acylcarnitine, whose decrease in chronic fatigue syndrome has been reported, were also similar between MS patients and normal controls. There was no difference in these carnitine levels between MS patients with and without excessive fatigue. We argue that acylcarnitine deficiency and fatty acid metabolic dysfunction in mitochondria are not relevant to the excessive fatigue in patients with MS, and further explanatory investigations are to be sought.